TomTom GO 2505TM review

Hands on with the TomTom GO 2505TM

UPDATE:This model has been discontinued. For a list of current TomTom models and their features, please see our TomTom comparison chart.

The TomTom GO 2505TM is the top of the line model in the new GO 2×05 series, which represents the most significant refresh I’ve seen since the first TomTom I ever used, a GO 300. The big changes are the new Webkit-based interface, a capacitive touch screen and a new magnetic mount.

The 2505TM has a 5” screen and includes Bluetooth for hands-free cell phone use, as well as lifetime map updates and lifetime traffic.

TomTom GO 2505TM hardware

The GO 2×05 series is flatter and more rectangular than previous TomToms, though still a bit more rounded on the edges than a Garmin nuvi. The units feels and looks solid, with a metal back (pictured below) that works with the magnetic mount…

Mount

The powered mount is perhaps the most innovative feature of the entire unit. When I first set it up, I thought that the connection would be a bit iffy, as the power lead didn’t quite lock into place, as you can see in the video below. No need to worry though – just set the unit on the mount and a magnet does the rest. It is by far the easiest mount I have ever used.

Capacitive touch screen

Most auto GPS units have a resistive touch screen that requires pressure (albeit slight) to operate. Whereas a capacitive touch screen, like those found on today’s smartphones, reacts to the slightest touch. The GO 2×05’s capacitive screen is very sensitive, and it may take you awhile to get used to it if you’ve been using resistive screens. It is very easy to accidentally double-tap.

I’ve often dinged TomTom in my reviews for having a washed out screen, but this one represents a significant improvement. I still don’t think it’s quite as bright as Garmin nuvi screens, but it is much better than previous models.

TomTom GO 2505TM interface

The menus are the strikingly different part of the new interface.

While things are arranged differently, it seems that most of the old settings are still there. A “make your own menu” option allows you to add buttons to the map screen, including voice command and control, navigate to spoken address, switch sound on/off, and show home-work traffic

The map screen (shown below) is very similar to previous models

The lower left field shows your speed and the speed limit. You can set the device to turn red when you exceed the limit limit, though the MPH over the limit cannot be customized (it turns red at about 6 MPH over the limit);tap this field to alternate between 2D and 3D map views

The center field shows your distance to and direction for next turn; tap it to access volume controls and hear the next turn instruction.

The lower right field shows ETA and time to destination; tap here to access route details

Voice commands

The voice command function allows you to use pre-determined commands and gives you the ability to input an address by voice. There are 114 commands that the unit understands. Unfortunately there is no POI search capability. I prefer Garmin’s voice command setup, which displays available commands on the most recent models. I demonstrate the voice command function and show those pre-defined commands in the video earlier in this post.

Navigating with the TomTom GO 2505TM

For the most part, the unit is intuitive and a pleasure to use. Route calculations were fairly fast and I only noticed one suspect route generated while testing the device — it seemed to send me on the shortest route instead of the fastest, which meant six stoplights and a construction zone, instead of just taking me on the Interstate, which would have eliminated all but two stoplights. In other cases, IQ Routes (TomTom’s historic road speed database) worked well, taking me on a local shortcut rather than a traffic clogged four lane road for example.

While routing was pretty good, directions were sometimes less than clear. For example, during one trip I stayed on I-26 for about 50 miles, and the TomTom showed the correct exit where I was to leave the Interstate. Along the way however, I had to make three turns, where other Interstate highways entered and exited, and the TomTom failed to direct me at those junctions! Sure, I was still on I-26 the whole way, but if I wasn’t familiar with the area I could have easily missed those turns.

On another occasion, I was on a two lane country road, which ended at a stop sign – a T intersection with a four lane US highway, where I had to make a left turn to continue my route. Nevertheless, the TomTom assured me that my next turn was still 10 miles ahead. So while routing errors were uncommon, the failure to note key turns was a significant issue.

I also experienced several reboots while driving. Preceding one of these the device kept alternately informing me that the RDS-TMS traffic was connected or disconnected.

TomTom’s Advanced Lane Guidance (ALG) coverage (pictured below) greatly exceeds that of Garmin’s Junction View feature. When junctions were in close proximity to each other though, the ALG feature could be misleading. I also questioned why it even came up once, telling me not to take a small exit, and stay on the Interstate instead. Correct, but unnecessary.

One place the TomTom excelled was in directing me to rest areas. Try this with a Gamin nuvi and you’ll often see that it’s less than clear which side of the Interstate a rest area is located on. Not so with the TomTom.

TomTom GO 2505TM Pros

Bright screen

Innovative magnetic mount is the best found on any auto GPS

5” screen

Lifetime traffic

Lifetime map updates

Map Share allows for corrections of some map errors

Intuitive interface

Bluetooth

Map screen can be customized with icons for direct access to key functions

IQ Routes historic road speed database for improved routing

Extensive Advanced Lane Guidance coverage

TomTom GO 2505TM Cons

Limited voice commands

Failed to show significant junctions as turns

Reboots point to less than mature firmware

Advanced Lane Guidance was confusing at times

Speed limit coverage primarily limited to major highways

Conclusion

I really like the TomTom GO 2505TM hardware, a lot. The bright capacitive touch screen and innovative magnetic mount are great improvements. TomTom has redone their interface and managed to make it fairly intuitive, keeping the best features of old and bringing in the new without causing too many problems in the process. No small feat.

Unfortunately the firmware still seems to have some bugs in it, as spontaneous reboots occurred several times during testing. I don’t know why the unit failed to show significant junctions as turns. I don’t recall this being a widespread problem on TomTom units before, but I did notice it on multiple occasions. Perhaps it was just the specific routes I was taking, but (combined with the reboots) it leaves me reluctant to recommend the GO 2505TM.

This is Shaun from your Nuvi 3790T review. Thanks for your review of the Go 2505TM. I’m just patiently awaiting to see what new units come out from Garmin and TomTom as well. I’m curious to see what improvements are made beyond the Garmin Nuvi 3790LMT and TomTom’s Go 2405/2505TM’s.

The few things that I do not like about the 3790LMT are the pop-ups in traffic mode; the ability to make map corrections and share them; the lack of Live features, and the customability unlike the earlier Go units from TomTom. The few things that I don’t like about the Go 2405/2505TM’s are the firmware bugs (like you stated in the review); the lack of Live features; the ability to make map corrections and share them (this feature was available on previous Go units such as the 920T); and fact that they limited their internal memory capacities to only 4GB! Future map updates will require more memory as more roads, POI’s, and addresses become apparent.

I expect the memory slot just wasn’t used by many people. Kudos to Garmin for retaining them.

You should hear TomTom news soon. After today’s announcements, I’d say you won’t see next-gen features announced by Garmin till CeIT in March. However, I’ve yet to test a nuvi 2xxx unit; I suspect there may be an Easter egg or two in there!

Apple’s Iphone 5 is coming out this June. I don’t have an Iphone; yet. I’ll probably get one on my next phone upgrade. Are the Apps as good as the independent units? I’m in no rush to purchase a GPS unit because I have a Go 920T that still works, but the map is just a year old. I’ve done some research on both TomTom and Garmin Apps for the Iphone. As for the customer reviews for the Garmin App; the responses were horrific. All 7 reviews said that it was a waste of $40 and would not recommand it. But the TomTom App review was quite the opposite.

The Garmin app is brand new and it seemed rush to get it out in time for CES. An update came out yesterday that has already solved some of the complaints. It will get better.

In general, I’m not a fan of smartphone navigation. Screen size is small on some units (like the iPhone), and the nav apps can be less feature rich and more difficult to interact with. It also increases the temptation to interact with it while driving if you are using it for multiple tasks (nav, music, phone). The best use for me (using a Droid 1 or the wife’s Droid X) is for spur of the minute nav, when I don’t have a dedicated GPS with me.

Yeah, I tend to agree with you. There would be too much interaction with a smart phone because it would be used for everything. Plus the screen would be too small. In fact, I like the 5″ size screen from TomTom. That screen is big enough, but not too big. Thanks.

Do you think Garmin will come out with a larger version of the 37XX series Nuvi in the future?

TomTom 2505 will not connect to TT Home which is PC software that TT offers for earlier models. This software is important for getting maps, updates, back-up ,etc. At this time you buy lifetime maps updates with the unit, but it will not work. Apparently, they came to market too early and the software is not functional at this time. Somewhat of a rip-off by their marketing people. The unit works fine, but the promised software and maps are not available and their customer support cannot resolve.

I have found many comments on other forums that go back several months, indicating a fix was in process, but nothing has changed as far as I can tell. This problem is well documented on the Amazon reviews for the 2505 and it amazes me that TT has not responded to these complaints. In my opinion, it will kill sales if it is not resolved.

Update on TT problems. I now am working with my 3rd 2505. The first two locked-up and could not be fixed by customer service and they sent replacements very promptly. The 2505 has numerous software problems still, particularly with downloading updates. This unit will not work with HUGHESNET and they finally told me that after 4 or 5 calls to customer service. If you are a HUGHESNET user, you have to go to a hard-wired PC in order to get map updates. There is no way to operate the 2505 from your PC or back-up the unit on your PC. Unfortunately, I did not know about all of these problems before the 30day Amazon warranty period. I am trying to convince TT to take it back, but that does not look good and I would not attempt to sell this unit to anyone without revealing these problems.

After researching GPS features for more than a week I had finally decided on a TomTom, based upon customer reviews and my hands-on experience in a local big box retailer.

However, the fact that the map updating problem has gone unresolved for several months by TomTom forced me to reconsider. I see no reason to pay for Lifetime Maps knowing that as things stand right now the maps are not downloadable.

Who knows when this will be corrected on these models. And, even if it is eventually corrected, why would I want to spend that kind of money on a GPS just to be forced to use outdated maps for several weeks or months, when I can buy another brand and immediately download the most current maps?

Solely because of this I purchased a Nuvi 1490LMT instead of a TomTom.

I thought it was unconscionable that TomTom doesn’t publish anywhere (website, manual) the available Voice Commands for the 2505. Customer service was no help, so I’m posting the list for all who are interested. I organized the commands into categories to more useful:

I know this is a few months old, but does anyone know if they have fixed the problems yet? My wife and I are going to Lake Tahoe in May with our (currently 16 months old)son. Last time (the first and only time we were there) we used my brother in-law’s GPS and it was a huge life saver since we don’t know the area.

So far we like the extra features on the 2505. It’s currently at the top of our list to buy.

Also, how is the hands free function on it? (My wife hates the in the ear bluetooth.

I’m not sure if improvements have been made or not. And unfortunately I didn’t quite get around to testing Bluetooth on this model. FWIW, while its not a TomTom, I was very impressed with Bluetooth on the Garmin nuvi 2400 series recently; definitely the best sound quality of any I’ve tested.

My wife and I checked out the Garmin nuvi 2460LTM. At about the same price for about the same features, she still wants the TomTom GO 2505.

We can get it for $291 on amazon (she wants an amazon card too, for the $30 credit) and she gets the free 2 day shipping. The biggest point for her is that we have read the Garmin has advertisements popping up. She seemed to really hate that.

Not even 4 weeks later (than the last post) and the 2535 series is available in a few places online, and at least in Best Buy (and maybe other bricks & mortar locations). I picked up a 2535M Live a few days ago; haven’t had a lot of time to learn all the ins and outs of it, but first impressions are generally good. Think I ran into one bug when I tried using Google search (a live service) and navigating to the location it found, after having used the TomTom local search feature first — couldn’t convince the device to navigate to the newly found location. I’ve been using a Nuvi 755T for the last 3 years and am still learning my way around the 2535 — so this might be user error; not sure yet.

Live / HD traffic combined with IQ routes is promising in the 2535M Live. I haven’t exercised this feature enough yet to be ready to render an opinion, but my overall impression is very positive so far, and all I’ve read of traffic avoidance handling is quite good. I’ll know more in a week or so- but if Casey is still in the market and hasn’t chosen a device yet, this is another alternative to consider.